John Whitehead's Commentary

"No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."--George Orwell

The last sentence in George Orwell's renowned novel Animal Farm aptly sums up the state of politics today. It's epitomized in many ways, but nowhere is it more clearly seen than in the recent political marriage of Rupert Murdoch and Hillary Clinton.

When Murdoch announced that he would host a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton--after years of attacking her--it caused many on both sides of the political aisle to scratch their heads in bewilderment. In fact, one commentator characterized political analysts' responses as "punditocracy in a tailspin."

On Monday, July 17, 2006, at the Fox News headquarters in New York City, Murdoch hosted the fundraiser for Clinton. But there were no cameras since, as the New York Daily News reported, Murdoch "tried to keep their political get-together as secret as possible." And when it was over, Clinton didn't exit the building through the lobby. She slipped out the side door of Fox News, clearly trying to hide the fact that she had been with Murdoch.

Many Americans know Rupert Murdoch as a conservative media owner who throws heavy financial support behind Republican agendas. So is it any wonder that many consider Murdoch and Clinton a political odd couple? Upon close inspection of Murdoch, however, it's not surprising that he would throw his support behind a high-profile politician seen by many as the frontrunner in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential election.

So who is Murdoch? Australian-born Rupert Murdoch is an extremely wealthy media mogul, owning much of the media industry in America and abroad. According to Business Week, "his satellites deliver TV programs in five continents, all but dominating Britain, Italy, and wide swaths of Asia and the Middle East. He publishes 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and the Times of London. In the U.S., he owns the Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Fox Network, and 35 TV stations that reach more than 40% of the country." According to the same report: "In all, as many as one in five American homes at any given time will be tuned into a show News Corp. (owned by Murdoch) either produced or delivered."

In short, Murdoch is an entrepreneur who is most concerned with the success of his businesses. And like many businesspeople, Murdoch has a history of putting politics or ideology aside for profit's sake. Indeed, it seems that dollar signs are what resonate with Murdoch, over and above anything else. As James Fallows of the Atlanta Monthly stated, Murdoch's actions "are consistent with the use of political influences for corporate advantage."

This trend has been steady throughout Murdoch's career. In 2001, the supposedly staunch conservative abandoned his traditional political ideology to support liberal Tony Blair, who was the British New Labor candidate at the time. What was at the heart of this strange relationship? The answer, of course, is profits and business interests. Blair went on to support communications legislation in England that sought to loosen restrictions on foreign media ownership. This included a provision that would permit major newspaper publishers to own broadcast television stations in Britain and satirically became known as the "Murdoch Clause."

Similarly, during Rudolph Giuliani's term as New York mayor, Murdoch's publications passively supported the conservative mayor's administration by not reporting a single critical editorial. As Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice said about Murdoch's New York Post, they "had pulled off a perfect four-year streak" of not criticizing Giuliani in a single editorial. The pay-off, however, seems to have been big. During Giuliani's first term as mayor, Murdoch's News Corp. received a $20.7 million tax break for the Manhattan office buildings that housed several of Murdoch's media companies, including the New York Post.

If more evidence is needed that profit margins are the true motivation for Rupert Murdoch, we need look no further than his dealings with communist China--a brutal and repressive regime.
When Harper Collins, Murdoch's publishing company, was set to write the memoirs of Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong before the city was handed back to China, Murdoch's true colors were exposed. After finding out that the book, entitled East and West, would include negative remarks about the Chinese leadership, with whom Murdoch was securing media business, he stepped in and put an end to the book by canceling the publishing contract. It created an uproar, causing Business Week to conclude that the cancelled contract was a result of "corporate worries about friction with China, where Harper Collins' boss, Rupert Murdoch, has many business interests."

Unfortunately, Murdoch's pandering to the Chinese government doesn't end there. Even the truth about China's renowned human rights abuses, many leading to the deaths of Chinese citizens, doesn't stand in the way of this multi-millionaire's interest in padding the bottom line. In the 1990s, it was widely reported that in exchange for favorable business regulations, Murdoch vowed never to challenge or discredit the Chinese government. In fact, in response to a BBC report that brought to light China's human rights atrocities, Murdoch threw the BBC off Star TV, one of his satellite networks in China. And a Los Angeles Times report quoted Murdoch's son, who also leads News Corp., as saying, "Hong Kong democracy advocates should accept the reality of life under a strong-willed 'absolutist' government."

Rupert Murdoch's support of both the left and the right as well as totalitarian regimes--all in the name of increasing his wealth--makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish the pigs from the humans. This is no more true than in Murdoch's dealings with Hillary Clinton. One thing is certain. Murdoch's money speaks volumes. But as Bob Dylan has written, "Money doesn't talk. It swears."

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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